The Fourth Amendment and Obama’s disdain for it

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized”

I am going to explain the 4th Amendment, and how it is being violated by the federal government as we speak.

Our privacy is not to be violated by any government entity under any circumstances unless, the government can convince a judge that a crime has or is about to be committed. This is called “probable cause”. After probable cause is established, the government then is compelled to list specifically what they are looking for before they can search. If it is listening to phone conversations that is fine, but everything must be listed and approved by warrant issued by a judge.

I don’t want to get too far into the weeds but some history is required relating to our current crisis.

In the late 70’s Congress passed a law called the Foreign Intelligence Security Act. This law was passed because of concern that the Fourth Amendment was being violated collecting information in the U.S. in the name of national security. Most people have never heard of this law I have come to see.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was authorized to establish a special court so to speak with federal judges sitting on a panel reviewing these types of warrants. These are called FISA courts. They are ready at any time to hear a case because in the interest of national security, speed is crucial.

The Patriot Act is only famous because the democrats didn’t do it. It expanded the length of time a warrant lasted and expanded the amount of judges allowed to hear these cases, again for brevity.

That said, these warrants can only be issued if the communication or information gathered is related to foreigners and or U.S. citizens involved in criminal activity involving national security. They are both very strict and do adhere to the Fourth Amendment.

The democrats raised a huge protest to the Patriot Act, but it was all political theater, because what they didn’t tell you was that it was the them who created the FISA system in the first place. The Patriot Act only extended the length of time one of these warrants lasted, necessary because sometimes terrorist plots take a lot of time and planning and the intel usually reveals other plots. The government still had to produce probable cause and still to had list what and whom they were listening to specifically.

For example, if one of your family members lived at your house and was involved with overseas or domestic terrorists and used your phone to conduct terrorist business, only THEIR words could be recorded or kept on file for future prosecution or action. You talking to Aunt Milly could not even be recorded or kept in files. In fact the recording equipment must be shut off, and certainly no one in government had better get caught with anything other than evidence pertaining to criminal activity authorized in the warrant or they would face prosecution themselves. This was to prevent people from abusing it and spying on enemies.

I find no problem with the Patriot Act or the FISA Act. What I do have a problem with is the wholesale collection of data, to be searched and sifted through for a crime. This is what the Obama controlled intelligence service the NSA has been doing.

If the police are searching your house with a warrant looking for a shotgun used in a murder lets say, they cannot open up pill bottles where a shotgun would not fit and charge you with possession of drugs that were found there. That is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. When you hear that a criminal was let go on a “technicality”, this is usually why, because the Fourth Amendment was violated.

What Obama and his cronies are doing is bypassing the law and collecting bulk records from private companies that could include all of us. They are doing this to collect information on their enemies. Plain and simple. It has been whistleblown, and proven true by Eric Snowden.

Eric Holder authorized a warrant request that was of false probable cause in reference to a FOXNews reporter pertaining to a supposed leak of classified information. Of course it was bogus and there was no leaker funneling information to the reporter because no one was prosecuted for leaking and the reporter was not charged with obstructing justice. However, Eric Holder was able to collect information about the reporter and that was a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. The same thing happened to the Associated Press on a much larger scale.

This was done to gain political advantage. They want to find individuals who are giving out any information about the Obama Administration that could hurt them and catch them in scandals like they are in now. If they know who is telling reporters of their scandals, they can retaliate in other ways like sicking the IRS on them, etc. Do you understand now?

These are the same types of the things the burglars were doing at the democrat offices in the Watergate complex. The democrats raised holy hell over that and President Nixon resigned and rightly so. Do you think Obama will resign? Not on your life.

All of our Fourth Amendment rights were violated, but I predict not a thing will be done about it in Washington.